TORRINGTON - A special Board of Education meeting Nov. 5 was held without giving the proper 24-hours' notice required under state statute, The Register Citizen says in a complaint filed with the state's Freedom of Information Commission on Wednesday.

State open records laws say a public agency must post a notice of a special meeting at least 24 hours prior to the meeting in a place where the public has access to that notice.

The superintendent's assistant, Deborah Pollutro, sent an email to Assistant Torrington City Clerk Carol Anderson at 6:16 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 4, asking her to post the notice for a 6 p.m. special meeting the next day. The meeting notice was stamped and posted outside the City Clerk's office at 10:39 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 5 - not giving the public the required 24 hours of notice prior to the meeting being held that same night.

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In order to comply with state law, the special meeting should have been posted prior to City Hall closing on Friday afternoon, Nov. 2. Torrington City Hall closes at 12:30 p.m. on Fridays.

The special meeting was held to respond to allegations and criticism from The Register Citizen. During the special meeting, the Board of Education voted 6-2 to condemn The Register Citizen's recent criticism of a board policy that prohibits individual members from speaking to the press or communicating to the public outside of official meetings.

Chairman Ken Traub signaled a willingness to re-evaluate that policy, and member Paul Cavagnero pushed the board to act as soon as possible to bring "more transparency" to its deliberations, including getting meetings broadcast live on local access cable television again.

An "open letter" published on the front page of The Register Citizen Monday from Group Editor Matt DeRienzo questioned the policy and said it was inappropriate to have discussed it behind closed doors. Suggesting that individual members were being bullied into silence in violation of their First Amendment rights and duty to communicate with the public that had elected them, it included a headline, "Bullying and secrecy on the Torrington Board of Education," that drew strong objections from board members at Monday's meeting.

Traub and others opened the meeting expressing anger that newspaper accounts made it seem like Traub was personally behind the policy and was being "heavy-handed" in dealing with individual members.

A directive that members funnel press inquiries through either the board chairman or school superintendent has been part of the Torrington Board of Education's bylaws for about 10 years.